"He says he might have lost a pair of sneakers on the beach the night Natalee disappeared," said lead police investigator Roy Tromp. "That's what he claims in one of his many statements."

Tromp said the 17-year-old suspect described the shoes as white and blue and brand new.

"He claimed he lost them in the area of Fisherman's Hut, but we [are] looking at other places, including the pond," he said.

The pond was drained last week after a witness said he had seen Van der Sloot and two other named suspects -- brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe -- nearby. Authorities said Saturday they found nothing in the pond.

Fisherman's Hut is an area of a beach near the Marriott and Holiday Inn hotels. Holloway was staying at the Holiday Inn.

She was last seen May 30 leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes, all of whom live on the island. All three were arrested June 9, but a judge ordered the Kalpoes released on July 4.

No one has been formally charged in the teen's disappearance.

In one of multiple versions the three have told police about what happened that night, they said they left Holloway at a beach near Fisherman's Hut.

Police told CNN they don't know whether Van der Sloot is telling the truth, but they are now asking the public's help to look for the shoes to assist with their investigation.

They did not explain why they are now making the search public.

Van der Sloot is expected to be questioned again Tuesday, this time by Dutch investigators who are behavioral specialists, according to police.

Authorities said Van der Sloot will be transported from the prison where he is being held to a police station for the interview.

Police on Friday night used searchlights and cameras on the ground and from the air to look at areas of interest under the remaining water in the pond.

The search yielded nothing, authorities said. On Saturday morning, divers searched one spot in the middle of pond, but came up with nothing.

Police have again downplayed a witness who came forward a few days after Holloway's disappearance and claimed to have seen what could have been the body of a woman being dumped at a landfill.

Police said the vehicle described by that man was not there that night or in the surrounding days. In addition, they said, authorities searched the area twice and found nothing.

Nevertheless, they support another search of the landfill by a private group.

EquuSearch, the Texas-based volunteer group conducting that search, has moved 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of garbage, one of its members said.

The group will return to the landfill Tuesday with three to six donated bulldozers, he said.

Holloway, an 18-year-old honors student from suburban Birmingham, was in Aruba with classmates to celebrate their high school graduation when she disappeared.

Her mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has returned home to Alabama after spending about two months in Aruba during the search for her daughter. (Full story)